The majority of the 11th graders who went on Arrow Week this September had quite a different experience than those of previous years. Stephanie Ferri, Director of Outdoor Education, and two other faculty members Jed Donnel and Marya Alford were the only teachers to chaperone this year’s trip to the Pacific Northwest in Washington.

According to the Archer website, “Arrow Week is a unique opportunity for students to gain an appreciation and respect for the natural environment, while learning valuable leadership and interpersonal skills”.

The purpose of Archer’s partnership with NOLS “centers on leadership, technical skills, risk management, and environmental studies.”

The ninth graders, who will go to the Southwest Desert in Arizona during March 2017, will take a total of four Archer teachers, due to the larger class size. The seventh graders, who will travel to the Canyonlands in Utah during April 2017, will have an Archer chaperone in each Arrow Week group.

“Seventh grade will still have a chaperone per course just because they’re younger, they really need that emotional support, and that safety piece,” Ferri said. “Whereas we see ninth and 11th grade needing that less.”

Asking five to seven teachers to attend an Arrow Week three times a year “gets to be a lot of requesting faculty to attend and take time away from their families,” Ferri said.

“So when looking at just sustainability of the program and getting chaperones to attend, we thought about decreasing the numbers so we could still give faculty the opportunity to go, but give some faculty who have gone three, four, five years a little bit of a break,” Ferri said.

Ferri told the 11th graders beforehand that the majority of the groups would not have a chaperone. She made sure that if any students felt uncomfortable attending without an Archer teacher, they could come to her to discuss it.

“Nobody had any concerns about it,” she said.

“I announced it to the girls and told them its really about this trip in 11th grade, which is especially about them and their experience in connecting. As much as it’s nice sometimes to have an Archer chaperone there, ultimately they don’t need them” Ferri said.